To support the other

This is the last podcast on the road. OMG it’s got a lot of birds in it…

Apologies, and thanks to listeners who have been patient during my travels. Tomorrow the podcast will be back in the studio where there’s a lot more control over ambient noise.

I often ask those I work with, “How do I support the other?” It’s a useful question to keep in front of me at all times, along with Peter Brook’s question:

How do I say “yes?”

Now is the moment to begin again 
in stillness, 
in equilibrium, 
and in sensation of the body. 

I take the time to bring my attention 
carefully, 
lovingly, 
intimately, 
and more exactly 
to each part of the body. 

Not moving through it from place to place, 
but comprehending the entire body in all of its cellular and molecular nature. 

Comprehending the breathing 
which takes place not in the lungs, 
but in the entire body. 

The breathing takes place in the feet. 
The breathing takes place in the legs 
and the hands and the arms. 
The breathing takes place in the heart and the head. 

And as I allow this comprehensive, organic understanding of the breathing 
to sink more deeply into the tissue of my being body, 
I relax a little more deeply. 

And already now, I am not just more in this world, 
but more of this world, 
of its wholeness, of its vibration. 

I am not separated from this world 
and I am not separated from myself 
for all of it is here together 
sensed in this concentration of the being body. 

And while I have not quite fully entered it, 
I am poised now on the edge of glory. 
The glory which fills all things with being. 

How will I appreciate that this day? 
Will I be here to see and to give thanks? 
I hope to be. 
I hope to be more attentive. more conscious. 
No matter how my thoughts direct me, 
I hope to be more compassionate, more caring, 
more respectful of the other person, 
to bring loving kindness always and everywhere 
and to remember always and everywhere the question, 
how can I respect the other? 

It is, however, more than respect I wish to bring. 

For it is my duty as a living creature 
who breathes and thinks and feels, 
not just to respect the other, 
but to support them the best I can 
through the goodness of being.